Palm Beach 50 | South Beach 338 | Boston Whaler 350 Realm
The Palm Beach 50 Fly definitely has the classic lines of a Downeaster, but she appears lower, more graceful—and under the skin she also has a lot more muscle. Some Downeasters chug along on a single diesel, but the Palm Beach is powered by twin Volvo Penta IPS 600s. Her top speed is 31.4 knots, and she can cruise economically at 22.1 knots. Two joystick command stations should make her considerably easy to handle around the docks. And she has a draft of just 2’10” (0.86 m), allowing her to safely tuck into little hideaways in Maine for a picnic or an overnight stay.
Here’s the video that sparked a whole lot of internet chatter this year – in fact, more than on any other video we ran. Captain Dave East made it, and widely circulated it before we got our hands on it, but we like it because it demonstrates that all horsepower is not the same. By putting the 6-cylinder 2-stroke Evinrude E-TEC G2 150 H.O. up against a 4-cylinder 4-stroke Yamaha F200 outboard in a head-to-head, apples-to-apples comparison on the same transom, the results were dramatic. The 4-stroke Yamaha failed to put the boat on plane in repeated tries with different props, while the 2-stroke Evinrude not only planed the boat, but pushed it to a top speed of almost 28 mph. Dave has written for a number of boating magazines over the years and is currently building boats, and he knows both engines and boats.
The bow of the Boston Whaler 350 Realm is clearly a whole lot more than a designer afterthought to appease family buyers, as we see on many “multi-mission” boats in class. The asymmetrical design provides a 21” (53.3 cm) wide walkway to the bow on the port side, and a three-person chaise with filler cushion for flat sunning. Below the filler cushion is a table that can serve four people for lunch or cocktails. Add an awning, set the anchor, and watch the world go by.
Twin MAN V12, 1,800-hp diesels drive the Monte Carlo Yachts 86, and they don’t seem to mind the intrusion of a tender garage above them. At the recommended 80 percent throttle range, this 3-4 stateroom vessel travels a bit better than 20 knots. MPG fuel consumption is the same from 1600 rpm to a full throttle of 2400, without concern for the fuel burn. Between the engines is the substructure of the tender garage—access with more overhead space is on the outboard side of each.
Who first said, “Peel me a grape?” Perhaps a Roman, and he’d feel right at home in one of these his-and-hers powered chaise lounges on the stern of the Cruisers Yachts 338 OB. As can be seen in the image above, the stern seating can be powered in four different chaise positions, plus become a flat sun pad or be forward-facing settee seating near the cockpit table. The model shown here is the South Beach Edition upgrade, with striking ochre upholstery and numerous other premium features. She even tucks overnight accommodations belowdecks.
After 9/11, the USCG decided that it needed over 700 patrol boats to secure U.S. ports, harbors, and boarders. It would need a platform that could handle its 30 mm machine guns, be fast and nimble enough to intercept water-born suicide bombers, and be extremely reliable in the harsh saltwater environments where they would be deployed 24/7 in all kinds of weather. Not only that, but it would need to do all of that on a budget.
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